Generator yearly cost
My generator cost $500 for lp this year.
Thank you Jcpl. Great Meadows.
How did you do?
Babbit 
dodgeball Do you have a whole house generator or one of those that you wheel out and have to have heavy-duty extension cords running all over the place? I'm contemplating whether to get a Generac installed.
Lonesome Dove I had a Generac whole house unit with a 500 gallon tank installed 10 years ago. It is a 20KW propane unit. I just had the tank refilled because I was down to about 50%. The unit gets yearly maintenance including oil change and general look over. I just replaced the battery and it did have a software upgrade. It has been a very efficient unit and when it comes time to replace it it will be a Generac.
If you do decide to go with a whole house unit shop around for the best price and ask what the yearly maintenance cost will be. The unit will give you peace of mind when the power goes out.
Mr 4Paws How’s solar help in a power failure unless the sun is out?
If that’s 250 gals in a year; what was the cost?
I have a 10k unit, not whole house, my pool, ac, and outbuildings not on, and switched from gas to electric range and have not added that. As kids have left, may extend to all but ac and pool this year.
It’s generac and my second unit; sandy claimed the first plus it was a lemon. Service/maintenance key and even platinum dealers can be bad. Best bang for buck.
Try Espositos Electric in Denville. They saved me in 45min on one of those 50mph thunder bumpers on a Sunday evening. Best I have found. Others come out in days or weeks….
Whole house standby generators use huge amounts of LP. If you have LNG available it's less costly.
Bill @Lonesome Dove
Those Generac systems are very nice but expensive. I have a good rollout gas generator and use no extension cords. I have an outside outlet which is connected to an intelligent switch (the gen plugs into the outlet) . I start the generator and all the house circuits switch to the generator, no extension cords, no touching anything in the electrical panel. The intelligent switch is always checking for the availability of commercial power, once it is back for 3 minutes it switches all the circuits back. I then shut the generator off and roll it back into the garage. I have 250 hours of use on the generator due to power failures!
OnTheEdge 
CBGB I have solar / battery- charge during the day, power whenever I want.
14.4kw inverter and 24kwh battery currently- could scale to 21.6kw / 90kwh if I wanted to.
No maintenance, no noise, no fuel, no oil changes.
Wired direct to a smart panel, powers my entire home- seamless changeover- don't even notice the lights flicker
Josh Josh, very cool; what did that set you back and who did you get to do it? Most certainly the Cadillac approach with less maintenance being a real plus. These generators are pretty high strung and, by definition, even run at a very high idle with zero load to anticipate load and avoid flickering. Idle RPMs, like 3,600, is like having a Harley in fifth or sixth gear at 70 mph. Feisty. Hot.
You picked the way to go, especially if living there awhile.
And yes, folks, I would skip the lp if I could. $500 a year is only expensive IF JCPL keeps going out every time someone whispers "rain coming." If Mr 4 Paws used 500 gals a year, that's over $2,000 and ouch. If On the Edge racked up 250 hours, at about 1 gal per hour in lp that's about $1,000. What do think the total gas price was? Sounds like you folks on Danville Mountain....which has to be the first out, and last back on, around here. Down here in Great Meadows, 125 hours of outage seems like a pretty good year for these jcpl cheapskates. Even the clean up on the Pequest run to Danville Mtn and GM looks half-assed.
OTE: Generac is about as cost effective as they get. Bang for buck, they are so effective there is not much competition. You can get smaller units, only put critical circuits on, tricks like that OR even the roll-out gas driven, with smart switch like OTE, probably the coolest, cheapest way to go, but smart switch will set you back. Really nifty if you have garage, can open door, and just roll it to the doorway.
Josh, show us the way to your Cadillac set-up. Who are the pro's from Dover that did that for you?
the judgeTo answer you Babbit I used 200 gallons in almost 10 years. The unit has been VERY efficient.
Mr 4p: wow --- do you live in h-town proper? For Great Meadows, my 90gals in a year is an OK year. You use 3 gals a year or so on test runs alone. Given the rpm on idle, not sure "efficient" is the term; the generac's are the best bang for the buck out there, IMO. obviously lp more expensive than natural and I think gas is the most expensive way to go, but units are less costly.
I expect josh's approach is most expensive startup cost, and while zero maintenance, until one understands the battery cost, maintenance, and how long to replace, got a feeling it's the priciest way to go. But no or less maintenance sounds really attractive. Plus, I really want an ev with solar to charge, so hoping I can bundle. If I figure out how to drive-on-God, I think both God and I will smile. And if my house gets powered at same time, win-win. But finding an expert company that's does it, and has done it is harder than I expected.
Roywhite The recall is on portable gas versions.
I think everyone here with Generac is lp or natural gas. And not portable.
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